###Live Caption:San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom hugs Kate Kendall Ex Director of NCLR during the press onferance in the City Hall rotunda Thursday May 15, 2008, after the California Supreme Court desistion giving Gays and lesbians constitutional right to marry in California. The state Supreme Court said in a historic ruling, that could be repudiated by the voters in November. Photographed in San Francisco, Calif, Photo By Lance Iversen / San Francisco Chronicle.###Caption History:San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom hugs Kate Kendall Ex Director of NCLR during the press onferance in the City Hall rotunda after the California Supreme Court desistion giving Gays and lesbians constitutional right to marry in California. The state Supreme Court said Wednesday May 15, 2008 in a historic ruling that could be repudiated by the voters in November.
In a 4-3 decision, the justices said the state's ban on same-sex marriage violates the "fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship. Photographed in San Francisco, Calif, By Lance Iversen / San Francisco Chronicle.###Notes:Lance Iversen 415-2979395
CQ###Special Instructions:MANDATORY CREDIT PHOTOG AND SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE.

Emboldened by Thursday's historic California Supreme Court ruling overturning the state's ban on same-sex marriage, the San Francisco mayor said he might swing by for a visit someday soon.

"This is not just San Francisco," Newsom told reporters minutes after the court's verdict was announced. "It's Walnut Creek. It's Long Beach. It's the southern part of the state in San Diego. It's in Riverside. ... It's in Fresno that this is now appropriate and legal. I may go to Fresno to support their county clerk."

Newsom's 2004 decision to grant marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples triggered the drawn-out legal battle, but it was last week's ruling by a Republican-majority court that had the gubernatorial hopeful sounding like he was preparing for a statewide road trip - with Sacramento as the final destination.

The Democratic mayor has said he is considering launching a campaign to replace Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010, and the state's political circles were abuzz with speculation that the court's ruling will help Newsom in a statewide primary if he faces off against any of the other possible contenders, like Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown or Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Most of the country - 56 percent - believes marriage should be between a man and a woman, according to a Gallup poll taken this month. But that number has slowly declined over the last decade, and on the West Coast, 51 percent of people support same-sex marriages, the poll found.

That, analysts say, vindicates Newsom's brash stunt four years ago and puts him on the winning side of a hot-button political issue.

Newsom had just started his first term when he sparked nationwide protest by ordering San Francisco to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Over the course of a month, more than 4,000 same-sex pairs came to City Hall to get married before the court brought the ceremonies to a halt and declared the licenses invalid.

Attacked from both sides

It wasn't just conservatives who were angered by Newsom's move. Members of his own party lashed out at him, saying his defiance came at the most inopportune time - during a presidential election. Some blamed Newsom for costing the Democrats the White House that year.

Though observers say Thursday's court decision will undoubtedly make its way into this year's presidential contest, few expect same-sex marriage to surface as the wedge issue it was in 2004, or that Newsom will be blamed for the outcome of the election.

"In desperation, some parts of the Republican Party may try to make an issue of it, but these kinds of issues will be second-, third- and fourth-tier," Mulholland said. "Too many Americans are losing their homes, and gas prices seem to be going only one way."

Newsom's stance on same-sex marriage has paid huge political dividends for him at home in San Francisco. He narrowly won the 2003 mayor's race against Green Party member and former Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, and at the time the city's gay community was split in its support of Newsom, a political moderate by San Francisco standards.

But his same-sex marriage move instantly catapulted him to citywide superstar status. His approval ratings have been consistently high ever since, and when he ran for a second term last year, no big-name politicians stepped up to challenge him.

Former state Assembly leader and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, one of the state's most veteran Democratic players, said that while California's court ruling is still making headlines around the world, now is the time for Newsom to take his same-sex marriage victory on the road to win political points outside the city limits.

"He can go to all 58 counties if he's smart and have his friends in the gay community give him human rights awards in every county," Brown said.

Though Newsom has also earned a reputation for backing a slew of environmental initiatives and bringing universal health care to San Francisco, he is and will continue to be known as the gay marriage mayor, and Brown said he might as well capitalize on that if he intends to run for statewide office.

"He is Gay Marriage Sam, so he has no choice but to try to make it as respectable and as apple pie as possible," Brown said.

Moved to tears

The issue has become a personal one for Newsom, who aides said cried in the privacy of his City Hall office Thursday after learning of the ruling. The first people he phoned to share the news were his fiancee, Jennifer Siebel, and his father, an Irish Catholic retired judge who years earlier had advised his son against making the gay marriage move.

But Newsom also wasted no time gaining political ground. He had been scheduled to give a speech in Chicago Thursday, but when his aides learned the much-anticipated court ruling was coming, they canceled the appearance and immediately flew him back to San Francisco.

Aides spoke privately about his legacy and made sure the images were carefully choreographed: The American and California flags were strategically placed behind the podium for a news conference during which Newsom, surrounded by hundreds of cheering gay and lesbian couples, delivered the perfect sound bite.

Newsom was hardly the only liberal politician to cast himself in a starring role. The same day the court's decision was announced, Villaraigosa made a trip to a Hollywood gay and lesbian center to tell the crowd that he was proud to be a Californian.

"The fact that Antonio Villaraigosa rushed to have a press conference on this shows that it is now considered to be good policy in Democratic circles," said a San Francisco-based political consultant who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the rivalry between the two mayoral camps.

Newsom made it a point to stay on message and to deliver the same storyline he has been delivering for the last four years: The issue is not about politics but rather about the couples and their families.

Staffers made sure he was visible where he needed to be - namely in the state and national media - and strategically invisible, too. It wasn't coincidence that Newsom was nowhere to be seen in the city's predominantly gay Castro neighborhood Thursday night, where the celebration turned into an impromptu street party.

"He is clearly riding this horse to the governorship," Brown told a local television station the day after the ruling was announced. "I don't know if (fiancee) Jennifer ought to worry because he may decide the ultimate demonstration is to become a domestic partner."

But appearing too eager to capitalize on the issue will carry political consequence, he said.

"This is one where you don't want to be in a position where it looks like you're trying to exploit the situation," Brown said.

'It made him serious again'

Barbara O'Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and the Media at Cal State Sacramento, said Newsom would fail miserably if he attempted to make same-sex marriage the centerpiece of a statewide campaign. It's candidates' success on issues like crime and education that get them elected to the statehouse, she said, but the court ruling does make Newsom a more viable contender.

"It made him serious again," she said.

Both Republicans and Democrats agree that Newsom's victory Thursday could be short-lived if voters approve a measure to place a same-sex marriage ban in the state's Constitution this November.

"If there's a decisive vote in November, then he is back in the same position he was in before, which is having just another moment in the sun," said Tom Del Beccaro, vice chairman of the California Republican Party.

Newsom is expected to play a prominent role in the campaign against the initiative, raising money to defeat it and possibly appearing in ad campaigns. Schwarzenegger also said he would fight against it.

Whichever campaign Newsom takes on the road - whether to run for governor or to fight against the same-sex marriage ballot measure - Fresno isn't rolling out the welcome mat yet.

The Central Valley city's mayor released a statement after Thursday's ruling that couldn't be more different than Newsom's take on the issue.

"The state Supreme Court's decision to trample on the will of people is harmful to not only America and California but also to society as a whole," Mayor Alan Autry said. "It is yet another example of the California court system gone crazy."